Saturday, September 13, 2008

And so much more! In the latest revelations she comes off as a vindictive, secretive power-monger -- shades of the Bush administration -- determined to push through her ideologies and personal agenda.

The New York Times chronicles how Palin hired her friends -- and fired her foes -- even though, surprise, they were not qualified for their jobs. And of course, they then would protect her, in return for far bigger salaries than they'd ever make in the private sector:

Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.

When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects.

And four months ago, a Wasilla blogger, Sherry Whitstine, who chronicles the governor’s career with an astringent eye, answered her phone to hear an assistant to the governor on the line, she said.

The story goes on to expose how Palin was offended that "Daddy's Roommate" was in the local library, confirming -- contrary to what she told Charles Gibson -- that she tried to have that and other titles removed. Go and read the whole damn thing.

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